Implicaciones de las proteínas de choque térmico (sHsp/HSPB) en el desarrollo de enfermedades degenerativas

• Main Authors: Aura T. Chávez-Zobel, Homero Sáenz-Suárez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana 2009-04-01
• Series: Universitas Scientiarum
• Subjects: Heat shock proteins (Hsp); body inclusion; degenerative diseases; myopathies; mutations
• Online Access: http://revistas.javeriana.edu.co/index.php/scientarium/article/view/1397/859

The small heat shock proteins (sHsp/HSPB) and their implication in the development of degenerative diseases. Stress proteins are presentin all the cells and participate in the synthesis of proteins binding their selves to the newly formed peptides to direct their folding, thusensuring their three-dimensional structure and appropriate functioning. Besides, stress proteins are able to bind to damaged peptides andproteins due to diverse types of aggressions, enabling their repair or degradation. When cells are exposed to adverse situations, a rapidincrease in concentration of stress proteins occurs. Stress protein expression had been associated to heat shocks only, but nowadays weknow that stress proteins are induced as a response to a wide array of physiological and environmental aggressions such as: viral infections,inflammations, febrile responses, cell exposure to cytotoxic compounds, pH acidification, anoxia, and heat shock. The production of thistype of molecules is a defense mechanism that allows the cell to adapt to anomalous situations and increase its survival capacity. In our studywe present a brief historical account on stress proteins, their association with some pathologies, and discuss the current state of knowledgeabout this type of molecules and the possible mechanisms involved in protein conformational disorders or proteopathies.